CHAPTER 2.III.
SPREAD OF EVOLUTION.
1861-1862.
[The beginning of the year 1861 saw my father with the third chapter of
'The Variation of Animals and Plants' still on his hands. It had been
begun in the previous August, and was not finished until March 1861. He
was, however, for part of this time (I believe during December 1860 and
January 1861) engaged in a new edition (2000 copies) of the 'Origin,' which
was largely corrected and added to, and was published in April 1861.
With regard to this, the third edition, he wrote to Mr. Murray in December
1860:--
"I shall be glad to hear when you have decided how many copies you will
print off--the more the better for me in all ways, as far as compatible
with safety; for I hope never again to make so many corrections, or rather
additions, which I have made in hopes of making my many rather stupid
reviewers at least understand what is meant. I hope and think I shall
improve the book considerably."
An interesting feature in the new edition was the "Historical Sketch of the
Recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species" (The Historical Sketch
had already appeared in the first German edition (1860) and the American
edition. Bronn states in the German edition (footnote, page 1) that it was
his critique in the 'N. Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie' that suggested the idea
of such a sketch to my father.) which now appeared for the first time, and
was continued in the later editions of the work. It bears a strong impress
of the author's personal character in the obvious wish to do full justice
to all his predecessors,--though even in this respect it has not escaped
some adverse criticism.
Towards the end of the present year (1861), the final arrangements for the
first French edition of the 'Origin' were completed, and in September a
copy of the third English edition was despatched to Mdlle. Clemence Royer,
who undertook the work of translation. The book was now spreading on the
Continent, a Dutch edition had appeared, and, as we have seen, a German
translation had been published in 1860. In a letter to Mr. Murray
(September 10, 1861), he wrote, "My book seems exciting much attention in
Germany, judging from the number of discussions sent me." The silence had
been broken, and in a few years the voice of German science was to become
one of the strongest of the advocates of evolution.
During all the early part of the year (1861) he was working at the mass of
details which are marshalled in order in the early chapter of 'Animals and
Plants.' Thus in his Diary occur the laconic entries, "May 16, Finished
Fowls (eight weeks); May 31, Ducks."
On July 1, he started, with his family, for Torquay, where he remained
until August 27--a holiday which he characteristically enters in his diary
as "eight weeks and a day." The house he occupied was in Hesketh Crescent,
a pleasantly placed row of houses close above the sea, somewhat removed
from what was then the main body of the town, and not far from the
beautiful cliffed coast-line in the neighbourhood of Anstey's Cove.
During the Torquay holiday, and for the remainder of the year, he worked at
the fertilisation of orchids. This part of the year 1861 is not dealt with
in the present chapter, because (as explained in the preface) the record of
his life, as told in his letters, seems to become clearer when the whole of
his botanical work is placed together and treated separately. The present
series of chapters will, therefore, include only the progress of his works
in the direction of a general amplification of the 'Origin of Species'--
e.g., the publication of 'Animals and Plants,' 'Descent of Man,' etc.]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, January 15 [1861].
My dear Hooker,
The sight of your handwriting always rejoices the very cockles of my
heart...
I most fully agree to what you say about Huxley's Article ('Natural History
Review,' 1861, page 67, "On the Zoological Relations of Man with the Lower
Animals." This memoir had its origin in a discussion at the previous
meeting of the British Association, when Professor Huxley felt himself
"compelled to give a diametrical contradiction to certain assertions
respecting the differences which obtain between the brains of the higher
apes and of man, which fell from Professor Owen." But in order that his
criticisms might refer to deliberately recorded words, he bases them on
Professor Owen's paper, "On the Characters, etc., of the Class Mammalia,"
read before the Linnean Society in February and April, 1857, in which he
proposed to place man not only in a distinct order, but in "a distinct sub-
class of the Mammalia"--the Archencephala.), and the power of writing...The
whole review seems to me excellent. How capitally Oliver has done the
resume of botanical books. Good Heavens, how he must have read!...
I quite agree that Phillips ('Life on the Earth' (1860), by Prof. Phillips,
containing the substance of the Rede Lecture (May 1860).) is unreadably
dull. You need not attempt Bree. (The following sentence (page 16) from
'Species not Transmutable,' by Dr. Bree, illustrates the degree in which he
understood the 'Origin of Species': "The only real difference between Mr.
Darwin and his two predecessors" [Lamarck and the 'Vestiges'] "is this:--
that while the latter have each given a mode by which they conceive the
great changes they believe in have been brought about, Mr. Darwin does no
such thing." After this we need not be surprised at a passage in the
preface: "No one has derived greater pleasure than I have in past days
from the study of Mr. Darwin's other works, and no one has felt a greater
degree of regret that he should have imperilled his fame by the publication
of his treatise upon the 'Origin of Species.'")...
If you come across Dr. Freke on 'Origin of Species by means of Organic
Affinity,' read a page here and there...He tells the reader to observe
[that his result] has been arrived at by "induction," whereas all my
results are arrived at only by "analogy." I see a Mr. Neale has read a
paper before the Zoological Society on 'Typical Selection;' what it means I
know not. I have not read H. Spencer, for I find that I must more and more
husband the very little strength which I have. I sometimes suspect I shall
soon entirely fail...As soon as this dreadful weather gets a little milder,
I must try a little water cure. Have you read the 'Woman in White'? the
plot is wonderfully interesting. I can recommend a book which has
interested me greatly, viz. Olmsted's 'Journey in the Back Country.' It is
an admirably lively picture of man and slavery in the Southern States...
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL.
February 2, 1861.
My dear Lyell,
I have thought you would like to read the enclosed passage in a letter from
A. Gray (who is printing his reviews as a pamphlet ("Natural Selection not
inconsistent with Natural Theology," from the 'Atlantic Monthly' for July,
August, and October, 1860; published by Trubner.), and will send copies to
England), as I think his account is really favourable in high degree to
us:--
"I wish I had time to write you an account of the lengths to which Bowen
and Agassiz, each in their own way, are going. The first denying all
heredity (all transmission except specific) whatever. The second coming
near to deny that we are genetically descended from our great-great-
grandfathers; and insisting that evidently affiliated languages, e.g.
Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, owe none of their similarities to a community of
origin, are all autochthonal; Agassiz admits that the derivation of
languages, and that of species or forms, stand on the same foundation, and
that he must allow the latter if he allows the former, which I tell him is
perfectly logical."
Is not this marvellous?
Ever yours,
C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, February 4 [1861].
My dear Hooker,
I was delighted to get your long chatty letter, and to hear that you are
thawing towards science. I almost wish you had remained frozen rather
longer; but do not thaw too quickly and strongly. No one can work long as
you used to do. Be idle; but I am a pretty man to preach, for I cannot be
idle, much as I wish it, and am never comfortable except when at work. The
word holiday is written in a dead language for me, and much I grieve at it.
We thank you sincerely for your kind sympathy about poor H. [his
daughter]...She has now come up to her old point, and can sometimes get up
for an hour or two twice a day...Never to look to the future or as little
as possible is becoming our rule of life. What a different thing life was
in youth with no dread in the future; all golden, if baseless, hopes.
...With respect to the 'Natural History Review' I can hardly think that
ladies would be so very sensitive about "lizards' guts;" but the
publication is at present certainly a sort of hybrid, and original
illustrated papers ought hardly to appear in a review. I doubt its ever
paying; but I shall much regret if it dies. All that you say seems very
sensible, but could a review in the strict sense of the word be filled with
readable matter?
I have been doing little, except finishing the new edition of the 'Origin,'
and crawling on most slowly with my volume of 'Variation under
Domestication'...
[The following letter refers to Mr. Bates's paper, "Contributions to an
Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley," in the 'Transactions of the
Entomological Society,' vol.5, N.S. (The paper was read November 24, 1860.)
Mr. Bates points out that with the return, after the glacial period, of a
warmer climate in the equatorial regions, the "species then living near the
equator would retreat north and south to their former homes, leaving some
of their congeners, slowly modified subsequently...to re-people the zone
they had forsaken." In this case the species now living at the equator
ought to show clear relationship to the species inhabiting the regions
about the 25th parallel, whose distant relatives they would of course be.
But this is not the case, and this is the difficulty my father refers to.
Mr. Belt has offered an explanation in his 'Naturalist in Nicaragua'
(1874), page 266. "I believe the answer is that there was much
extermination during the glacial period, that many species (and some
genera, etc., as, for instance, the American horse), did not survive
it...but that a refuge was found for many species on lands now below the
ocean, that were uncovered by the lowering of the sea, caused by the
immense quantity of water that was locked up in frozen masses on the
land."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, 27th [March 1861].
My dear Hooker,
I had intended to have sent you Bates's article this very day. I am so
glad you like it. I have been extremely much struck with it. How well he
argues, and with what crushing force against the glacial doctrine. I
cannot wriggle out of it: I am dumbfounded; yet I do believe that some
explanation some day will appear, and I cannot give up equatorial cooling.
It explains so much and harmonises with so much. When you write (and much
interested I shall be in your letter) please say how far floras are
generally uniform in generic character from 0 to 25 degrees N. and S.
Before reading Bates, I had become thoroughly dissatisfied with what I
wrote to you. I hope you may get Bates to write in the 'Linnean.'
Here is a good joke: H.C. Watson (who, I fancy and hope, is going to
review the new edition (third edition of 2000 copies, published in April,
1861.) of the 'Origin') says that in the first four paragraphs of the
introduction, the words "I," "me," "my," occur forty-three times! I was
dimly conscious of the accursed fact. He says it can be explained
phrenologically, which I suppose civilly means, that I am the most
egotistically self-sufficient man alive; perhaps so. I wonder whether he
will print this pleasing fact; it beats hollow the parentheses in
Wollaston's writing.
_I_ am, MY dear Hooker, ever yours,
C. DARWIN.
P.S.--Do not spread this pleasing joke; it is rather too biting.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, [April] 23? [1861].
...I quite agree with what you say on Lieutenant Hutton's Review (In the
'Geologist,' 1861, page 132, by Lieutenant Frederick Wollaston Hutton, now
Professor of Biology and Geology at Canterbury College, New Zealand.) (who
he is I know not); it struck me as very original. He is one of the very
few who see that the change of species cannot be directly proved, and that
the doctrine must sink or swim according as it groups and explains
phenomena. It is really curious how few judge it in this way, which is
clearly the right way. I have been much interested by Bentham's paper ("On
the Species and Genera of Plants, etc.," 'Natural History Review,' 1861,
page 133.) in the N.H.R., but it would not, of course, from familiarity
strike you as it did me. I liked the whole; all the facts on the nature of
close and varying species. Good Heavens! to think of the British botanists
turning up their noses, and saying that he knows nothing of British plants!
I was also pleased at his remarks on classification, because it showed me
that I wrote truly on this subject in the 'Origin.' I saw Bentham at the
Linnean Society, and had some talk with him and Lubbock, and Edgeworth,
Wallich, and several others. I asked Bentham to give us his ideas of
species; whether partially with us or dead against us, he would write
EXCELLENT matter. He made no answer, but his manner made me think he might
do so if urged; so do you attack him. Every one was speaking with
affection and anxiety of Henslow. (Prof. Henslow was in his last illness.)
I dined with Bell at the Linnean Club, and liked my dinner...Dining out is
such a novelty to me that I enjoyed it. Bell has a real good heart. I
liked Rolleston's paper, but I never read anything so obscure and not self-
evident as his 'Canons.' (George Rolleston, M.D., F.R.S., 1829-1881.
Linacre Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Oxford. A man of much
learning, who left but few published works, among which may be mentioned
his handbook 'Forms of Animal Life.' For the 'Canons,' see 'Nat. Hist.
Review,' 1861, page 206.)...I called on R. Chambers, at his very nice house
in St. John's Wood, and had a very pleasant half-hour's talk; he is really
a capital fellow. He made one good remark and chuckled over it, that the
laymen universally had treated the controversy on the 'Essays and Reviews'
as a merely professional subject, and had not joined in it, but had left it
to the clergy. I shall be anxious for your next letter about Henslow.
(Sir Joseph Hooker was Prof. Henslow's son-in-law.) Farewell, with sincere
sympathy, my old friend,
C. DARWIN.
P.S.--We are very much obliged for the 'London Review.' We like reading
much of it, and the science is incomparably better than in the "Athenaeum".
You shall not go on very long sending it, as you will be ruined by pennies
and trouble, but I am under a horrid spell to the "Athenaeum" and the
"Gardener's Chronicle", but I have taken them in for so many years, that I
CANNOT give them up.
[The next letter refers to Lyell's visit to the Biddenham gravel-pits near
Bedford in April 1861. The visit was made at the invitation of Mr. James
Wyatt, who had recently discovered two stone implements "at the depth of
thirteen feet from the surface of the soil," resting "immediately on solid
beds of oolitic-limestone." ('Antiquity of Man,' fourth edition, page
214.) Here, says Sir C. Lyell, "I...for the first time, saw evidence which
satisfied me of the chronological relations of those three phenomena--the
antique tools, the extinct mammalia, and the glacial formation."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL.
Down, April 12 [1861].
My dear Lyell,
I have been most deeply interested by your letter. You seem to have done
the grandest work, and made the greatest step, of any one with respect to
man.
It is an especial relief to hear that you think the French superficial
deposits are deltoid and semi-marine; but two days ago I was saying to a
friend, that the unknown manner of the accumulation of these deposits,
seemed the great blot in all the work done. I could not stomach debacles
or lacustrine beds. It is grand. I remember Falconer told me that he
thought some of the remains in the Devonshire caverns were pre-glacial, and
this, I presume, is now your conclusion for the older celts with hyena and
hippopotamus. It is grand. What a fine long pedigree you have given the
human race!
I am sure I never thought of parallel roads having been accumulated during
subsidence. I think I see some difficulties on this view, though, at first
reading your note, I jumped at the idea. But I will think over all I saw
there. I am (stomacho volente) coming up to London on Tuesday to work on
cocks and hens, and on Wednesday morning, about a quarter before ten, I
will call on you (unless I hear to the contrary), for I long to see you. I
congratulate you on your grand work.
Ever yours,
C. DARWIN.
P.S.--Tell Lady Lyell that I was unable to digest the funereal ceremonies
of the ants, notwithstanding that Erasmus has often told me that I should
find some day that they have their bishops. After a battle I have always
seen the ants carry away the dead for food. Ants display the utmost
economy, and always carry away a dead fellow-creature as food. But I have
just forwarded two most extraordinary letters to Busk, from a backwoodsman
in Texas, who has evidently watched ants carefully, and declares most
positively that they plant and cultivate a kind of grass for store food,
and plant other bushes for shelter! I do not know what to think, except
that the old gentleman is not fibbing intentionally. I have left the
responsibility with Busk whether or no to read the letters. (I.e. to read
them before the Linnean Society.)
CHARLES DARWIN TO THOMAS DAVIDSON. (Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., born in
Edinburgh, May 17, 1817; died 1885. His researches were chiefly connected
with the sciences of geology and palaeontology, and were directed
especially to the elucidation of the characters, classification, history,
geological and geographical distribution of recent and fossil Brachiopoda.
On this subject he brought out an important work, 'British Fossil
Brachiopoda,' 5 vols. 4to. (Cooper, 'Men of the Time,' 1884.))
Down, April 26, 1861.
My dear Sir,
I hope that you will excuse me for venturing to make a suggestion to you
which I am perfectly well aware it is a very remote chance that you would
adopt. I do not know whether you have read my 'Origin of Species'; in that
book I have made the remark, which I apprehend will be universally
admitted, that AS A WHOLE, the fauna of any formation is intermediate in
character between that of the formations above and below. But several
really good judges have remarked to me how desirable it would be that this
should be exemplified and worked out in some detail and with some single
group of beings. Now every one will admit that no one in the world could
do this better than you with Brachiopods. The result might turn out very
unfavourable to the views which I hold; if so, so much the better for those
who are opposed to me. ("Mr. Davidson is not at all a full believer in
great changes of species, which will make his work all the more valuable.--
C. Darwin to R. Chambers (April 30, 1861).) But I am inclined to suspect
that on the whole it would be favourable to the notion of descent with
modification; for about a year ago, Mr. Salter (John William Salter; 1820-
1869. He entered the service of the Geological Survey in 1846, and
ultimately became its Palaeontologist, on the retirement of Edward Forbes,
and gave up the office in 1863. He was associated with several well-known
naturalists in their work--with Sedgwick, Murchison, Lyell, Ramsay, and
Huxley. There are sixty entries under his name in the Royal Society
Catalogue. The above facts are taken from an obituary notice of Mr. Salter
in the 'Geological Magazine,' 1869.) in the Museum in Jermyn Street, glued
on a board some Spirifers, etc., from three palaeozoic stages, and arranged
them in single and branching lines, with horizontal lines marking the
formations (like the diagram in my book, if you know it), and the result
seemed to me very striking, though I was too ignorant fully to appreciate
the lines of affinities. I longed to have had these shells engraved, as
arranged by Mr. Salter, and connected by dotted lines, and would have
gladly paid the expense: but I could not persuade Mr. Salter to publish a
little paper on the subject. I can hardly doubt that many curious points
would occur to any one thoroughly instructed in the subject, who would
consider a group of beings under this point of view of descent with
modification. All those forms which have come down from an ancient period
very slightly modified ought, I think, to be omitted, and those forms alone
considered which have undergone considerable change at each successive
epoch. My fear is whether brachiopods have changed enough. The absolute
amount of difference of the forms in such groups at the opposite extremes
of time ought to be considered, and how far the early forms are
intermediate in character between those which appeared much later in time.
The antiquity of a group is not really diminished, as some seem vaguely to
think, because it has transmitted to the present day closely allied forms.
Another point is how far the succession of each genus is unbroken, from the
first time it appeared to its extinction, with due allowance made for
formations poor in fossils. I cannot but think that an important essay
(far more important than a hundred literary reviews) might be written by
one like yourself, and without very great labour. I know it is highly
probable that you may not have leisure, or not care for, or dislike the
subject, but I trust to your kindness to forgive me for making this
suggestion. If by any extraordinary good fortune you were inclined to take
up this notion, I would ask you to read my Chapter X. on Geological
Succession. And I should like in this case to be permitted to send you a
copy of the new edition, just published, in which I have added and
corrected somewhat in Chapters IX. and X.
Pray excuse this long letter, and believe me,
My dear Sir, yours very faithfully,
C. DARWIN.
P.S.--I write so bad a hand that I have had this note copied.
CHARLES DARWIN TO THOMAS DAVIDSON.
Down, April 30, 1861.
My dear Sir,
I thank you warmly for your letter; I did not in the least know that you
had attended to my work. I assure you that the attention which you have
paid to it, considering your knowledge and the philosophical tone of your
mind (for I well remember one remarkable letter you wrote to me, and have
looked through your various publications), I consider one of the highest,
perhaps the very highest, compliments which I have received. I live so
solitary a life that I do not often hear what goes on, and I should much
like to know in what work you have published some remarks on my book. I
take a deep interest in the subject, and I hope not simply an egotistical
interest; therefore you may believe how much your letter has gratified me;
I am perfectly contented if any one will fairly consider the subject,
whether or not he fully or only very slightly agrees with me. Pray do not
think that I feel the least surprise at your demurring to a ready
acceptance; in fact, I should not much respect anyone's judgment who did
so: that is, if I may judge others from the long time which it has taken
me to go round. Each stage of belief cost me years. The difficulties are,
as you say, many and very great; but the more I reflect, the more they seem
to me to be due to our underestimating our ignorance. I belong so much to
old times that I find that I weigh the difficulties from the imperfection
of the geological record, heavier than some of the younger men. I find, to
my astonishment and joy, that such good men as Ramsay, Jukes, Geikie, and
one old worker, Lyell, do not think that I have in the least exaggerated
the imperfection of the record. (Professor Sedgwick treated this part of
the 'Origin of Species' very differently, as might have been expected from
his vehement objection to Evolution in general. In the article in the
"Spectator" of March 24, 1860, already noticed, Sedgwick wrote: "We know
the complicated organic phenomena of the Mesozoic (or Oolitic) period. It
defies the transmutationist at every step. Oh! but the document, says
Darwin, is a fragment; I will interpolate long periods to account for all
the changes. I say, in reply, if you deny my conclusion, grounded on
positive evidence, I toss back your conclusion, derived from negative
evidence,--the inflated cushion on which you try to bolster up the defects
of your hypothesis." [The punctuation of the imaginary dialogue is
slightly altered from the original, which is obscure in one place.]) If my
views ever are proved true, our current geological views will have to be
considerably modified. My greatest trouble is, not being able to weigh the
direct effects of the long-continued action of changed conditions of life
without any selection, with the action of selection on mere accidental (so
to speak) variability. I oscillate much on this head, but generally return
to my belief that the direct action of the conditions of life has not been
great. At least this direct action can have played an extremely small part
in producing all the numberless and beautiful adaptations in every living
creature. With respect to a person's belief, what does rather surprise me
is that any one (like Carpenter) should be willing TO GO SO VERY FAR as to
believe that all birds may have descended from one parent, and not go a
little farther and include all the members of the same great division; for
on such a scale of belief, all the facts in Morphology and in Embryology
(the most important in my opinion of all subjects) become mere Divine
mockeries...I cannot express how profoundly glad I am that some day you
will publish your theoretical view on the modification and endurance of
Brachiopodous species; I am sure it will be a most valuable contribution to
knowledge.
Pray forgive this very egotistical letter, but you yourself are partly to
blame for having pleased me so much. I have told Murray to send a copy of
my new edition to you, and have written your name.
With cordial thanks, pray believe me, my dear Sir,
Yours very sincerely,
CH. DARWIN.
[In Mr. Davidson's Monograph on British Brachiopoda, published shortly
afterwards by the Palaeontographical Society, results such as my father
anticipated were to some extent obtained. "No less than fifteen commonly
received species are demonstrated by Mr. Davidson by the aid of a long
series of transitional forms to appertain to...one type." "Lyell,
'Antiquity of Man,' first edition, page 428.)
In the autumn of 1860, and the early part of 1861, my father had a good
deal of correspondence with Professor Asa Gray on a subject to which
reference has already been made--the publication in the form of a pamphlet,
of Professor Gray's three articles in the July, August, and October numbers
of the 'Atlantic Monthly,' 1860. The pamphlet was published by Messrs.
Trubner, with reference to whom my father wrote, "Messrs. Trubner have been
most liberal and kind, and say they shall make no charge for all their
trouble. I have settled about a few advertisements, and they will
gratuitously insert one in their own periodicals."
The reader will find these articles republished in Dr. Gray's 'Darwiniana,'
page 87, under the title "Natural Selection not inconsistent with Natural
Theology." The pamphlet found many admirers among those most capable of
judging of its merits, and my father believed that it was of much value in
lessening opposition, and making converts to Evolution. His high opinion
of it is shown not only in his letters, but by the fact that he inserted a
special notice of it in a most prominent place in the third edition of the
'Origin.' Lyell, among others, recognised its value as an antidote to the
kind of criticism from which the cause of Evolution suffered. Thus my
father wrote to Dr. Gray:--"Just to exemplify the use of your pamphlet, the
Bishop of London was asking Lyell what he thought of the review in the
'Quarterly,' and Lyell answered, 'Read Asa Gray in the 'Atlantic.'". It
comes out very clearly that in the case of such publications as Dr. Gray's,
my father did not rejoice over the success of his special view of
Evolution, viz. that modification is mainly due to Natural Selection; on
the contrary, he felt strongly that the really important point was that the
doctrine of Descent should be accepted. Thus he wrote to Professor Gray
(May 11, 1863), with reference to Lyell's 'Antiquity of Man':--
"You speak of Lyell as a judge; now what I complain of is that he declines
to be a judge...I have sometimes almost wished that Lyell had pronounced
against me. When I say 'me,' I only mean CHANGE OF SPECIES BY DESCENT.
That seems to me the turning-point. Personally, of course, I care much
about Natural Selection; but that seems to me utterly unimportant, compared
to the question of Creation OR Modification."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, April 11 [1861].
My dear Gray,
I was very glad to get your photograph: I am expecting mine, which I will
send off as soon as it comes. It is an ugly affair, and I fear the fault
does not lie with the photographer...Since writing last, I have had several
letters full of the highest commendation of your Essay; all agree that it
is by far the best thing written, and I do not doubt it has done the
'Origin' much good. I have not yet heard how it has sold. You will have
seen a review in the "Gardeners' Chronicle". Poor dear Henslow, to whom I
owe much, is dying, and Hooker is with him. Many thanks for two sets of
sheets of your Proceedings. I cannot understand what Agassiz is driving
at. You once spoke, I think, of Professor Bowen as a very clever man. I
should have thought him a singularly unobservant man from his writings. He
never can have seen much of animals, or he would have seen the difference
of old and wise dogs and young ones. His paper about hereditariness beats
everything. Tell a breeder that he might pick out his worst INDIVIDUAL
animals and breed from them, and hope to win a prize, and he would think
you...insane.
[Professor Henslow died on May 16, 1861, from a complication of bronchitis,
congestion of the lungs, and enlargement of the heart. His strong
constitution was slow in giving way, and he lingered for weeks in a painful
condition of weakness, knowing that his end was near, and looking at death
with fearless eyes. In Mr. Blomefield's (Jenyns) 'Memoir of Henslow'
(1862) is a dignified and touching description of Prof. Sedgwick's farewell
visit to his old friend. Sedgwick said afterwards that he had never seen
"a human being whose soul was nearer heaven."
My father wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker on hearing of Henslow's death, "I fully
believe a better man never walked this earth."
He gave his impressions of Henslow's character in Mr. Blomefield's
'Memoir.' In reference to these recollections he wrote to Sir J.D. Hooker
(May 30, 1861):--
"This morning I wrote my recollections and impressions of character of poor
dear Henslow about the year 1830. I liked the job, and so have written
four or five pages, now being copied. I do not suppose you will use all,
of course you can chop and change as much as you like. If more than a
sentence is used, I should like to see a proof-page, as I never can write
decently till I see it in print. Very likely some of my remarks may appear
too trifling, but I thought it best to give my thoughts as they arose, for
you or Jenyns to use as you think fit.
"You will see that I have exceeded your request, but, as I said when I
began, I took pleasure in writing my impression of his admirable
character."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, June 5 [1861].
My dear Gray,
I have been rather extra busy, so have been slack in answering your note of
May 6th. I hope you have received long ago the third edition of the
'Origin.'...I have heard nothing from Trubner of the sale of your Essay,
hence fear it has not been great; I wrote to say you could supply more. I
send a copy to Sir J. Herschel, and in his new edition of his 'Physical
Geography' he has a note on the 'Origin of Species,' and agrees, to a
certain limited extent, but puts in a caution on design--much like
yours...I have been led to think more on this subject of late, and grieve
to say that I come to differ more from you. It is not that designed
variation makes, as it seems to me, my deity "Natural Selection"
superfluous, but rather from studying, lately, domestic variation, and
seeing what an enormous field of undesigned variability there is ready for
natural selection to appropriate for any purpose useful to each creature.
I thank you much for sending me your review of Phillips. ('Life on the
Earth,' 1860.) I remember once telling you a lot of trades which you ought
to have followed, but now I am convinced that you are a born reviewer. By
Jove, how well and often you hit the nail on the head! You rank Phillips's
book higher than I do, or than Lyell does, who thinks it fearfully
retrograde. I amused myself by parodying Phillips's argument as applied to
domestic variation; and you might thus prove that the duck or pigeon has
not varied because the goose has not, though more anciently domesticated,
and no good reason can be assigned why it has not produced many varieties
...
I never knew the newspapers so profoundly interesting. North America does
not do England justice; I have not seen or heard of a soul who is not with
the North. Some few, and I am one of them, even wish to God, though at the
loss of millions of lives, that the North would proclaim a crusade against
slavery. In the long-run, a million horrid deaths would be amply repaid in
the cause of humanity. What wonderful times we live in! Massachusetts
seems to show noble enthusiasm. Great God! How I should like to see the
greatest curse on earth--slavery--abolished!
Farewell. Hooker has been absorbed with poor dear revered Henslow's
affairs. Farewell.
Ever yours,
C. DARWIN.
HUGH FALCONER TO CHARLES DARWIN.
31 Sackville St., W., June 23, 1861.
My dear Darwin,
I have been to Adelsberg cave and brought back with me a live Proteus
anguinus, designed for you from the moment I got it; i.e. if you have got
an aquarium and would care to have it. I only returned last night from the
continent, and hearing from your brother that you are about to go to
Torquay, I lose no time in making you the offer. The poor dear animal is
still alive--although it has had no appreciable means of sustenance for a
month--and I am most anxious to get rid of the responsibility of starving
it longer. In your hands it will thrive and have a fair chance of being
developed without delay into some type of the Columbidae--say a Pouter or a
Tumbler.
My dear Darwin, I have been rambling through the north of Italy, and
Germany lately. Everywhere have I heard your views and your admirable
essay canvassed--the views of course often dissented from, according to the
special bias of the speaker--but the work, its honesty of purpose, grandeur
of conception, felicity of illustration, and courageous exposition, always
referred to in terms of the highest admiration. And among your warmest
friends no one rejoiced more heartily in the just appreciation of Charles
Darwin than did
Yours very truly,
H. FALCONER.
CHARLES DARWIN TO HUGH FALCONER.
Down [June 24, 1861].
My dear Falconer,
I have just received your note, and by good luck a day earlier than
properly, and I lose not a moment in answering you, and thanking you
heartily for your offer of the valuable specimen; but I have no aquarium
and shall soon start for Torquay, so that it would be a thousand pities
that I should have it. Yet I should certainly much like to see it, but I
fear it is impossible. Would not the Zoological Society be the best place?
and then the interest which many would take in this extraordinary animal
would repay you for your trouble.
Kind as you have been in taking this trouble and offering me this specimen,
to tell the truth I value your note more than the specimen. I shall keep
your note amongst a very few precious letters. Your kindness has quite
touched me.
Yours affectionately and gratefully,
CH. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
2 Hesketh Crescent, Torquay,
July 13 [1861].
...I hope Harvey is better; I got his review (The 'Dublin Hospital
Gazette,' May 15, 1861. The passage referred to is at page 150.) of me a
day or two ago, from which I infer he must be convalescent; it's very good
and fair; but it is funny to see a man argue on the succession of animals
from Noah's Deluge; as God did not then wholly destroy man, probably he did
not wholly destroy the races of other animals at each geological period! I
never expected to have a helping hand from the Old Testament...
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL.
2, Hesketh Crescent, Torquay,
July 20 [1861].
My dear Lyell,
I sent you two or three days ago a duplicate of a good review of the
'Origin' by a Mr. Maw (Mr. George Maw, of Benthall Hall. The review was
published in the 'Zoologist,' July, 1861. On the back of my father's copy
is written, "Must be consulted before new edit. of 'Origin'"--words which
are wanting on many more pretentious notices, on which frequently occur my
father's brief o/-, or "nothing new."), evidently a thoughtful man, as I
thought you might like to have it, as you have so many...
This is quite a charming place, and I have actually walked, I believe, good
two miles out and back, which is a grand feat.
I saw Mr. Pengelly (William Pengelly, the geologist, and well-known
explorer of the Devonshire caves.) the other day, and was pleased at his
enthusiasm. I do not in the least know whether you are in London. Your
illness must have lost you much time, but I hope you have nearly got your
great job of the new edition finished. You must be very busy, if in
London, so I will be generous, and on honour bright do not expect any
answer to this dull little note...
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, September 17 [1861?].
My dear Gray,
I thank you sincerely for your very long and interesting letter, political
and scientific, of August 27th and 29th, and September 2nd received this
morning. I agree with much of what you say, and I hope to God we English
are utterly wrong in doubting (1) whether the N. can conquer the S.; (2)
whether the N. has many friends in the South, and (3) whether you noble men
of Massachusetts are right in transferring your own good feelings to the
men of Washington. Again I say I hope to God we are wrong in doubting on
these points. It is number (3) which alone causes England not to be
enthusiastic with you. What it may be in Lancashire I know not, but in S.
England cotton has nothing whatever to do with our doubts. If abolition
does follow with your victory, the whole world will look brighter in my
eyes, and in many eyes. It would be a great gain even to stop the spread
of slavery into the Territories; if that be possible without abolition,
which I should have doubted. You ought not to wonder so much at England's
coldness, when you recollect at the commencement of the war how many
propositions were made to get things back to the old state with the old
line of latitude, but enough of this, all I can say is that Massachusetts
and the adjoining States have the full sympathy of every good man whom I
see; and this sympathy would be extended to the whole Federal States, if we
could be persuaded that your feelings were at all common to them. But
enough of this. It is out of my line, though I read every word of news,
and formerly well studied Olmsted...
Your question what would convince me of Design is a poser. If I saw an
angel come down to teach us good, and I was convinced from others seeing
him that I was not mad, I should believe in design. If I could be
convinced thoroughly that life and mind was in an unknown way a function of
other imponderable force, I should be convinced. If man was made of brass
or iron and no way connected with any other organism which had ever lived,
I should perhaps be convinced. But this is childish writing.
I have lately been corresponding with Lyell, who, I think, adopts your idea
of the stream of variation having been led or designed. I have asked him
(and he says he will hereafter reflect and answer me) whether he believes
that the shape of my nose was designed. If he does I have nothing more to
say. If not, seeing what Fanciers have done by selecting individual
differences in the nasal bones of pigeons, I must think that it is
illogical to suppose that the variations, which natural selection preserves
for the good of any being have been designed. But I know that I am in the
same sort of muddle (as I have said before) as all the world seems to be in
with respect to free will, yet with everything supposed to have been
foreseen or pre-ordained.
Farewell, my dear Gray, with many thanks for your interesting letter.
Your unmerciful correspondent.
C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.W. BATES.
Down, December 3 [1861].
My dear Sir,
I thank you for your extremely interesting letter, and valuable references,
though God knows when I shall come again to this part of my subject. One
cannot of course judge of style when one merely hears a paper (On Mimetic
Butterflies, read before the Linnean Soc., November 21, 1861. For my
father's opinion of it when published, see below.), but yours seemed to me
very clear and good. Believe me that I estimate its value most highly.
Under a general point of view, I am quite convinced (Hooker and Huxley took
the same view some months ago) that a philosophic view of nature can solely
be driven into naturalists by treating special subjects as you have done.
Under a special point of view, I think you have solved one of the most
perplexing problems which could be given to solve. I am glad to hear from
Hooker that the Linnean Society will give plates if you can get drawings...
Do not complain of want of advice during your travels; I dare say part of
your great originality of views may be due to the necessity of self-
exertion of thought. I can understand that your reception at the British
Museum would damp you; they are a very good set of men, but not the sort to
appreciate your work. In fact I have long thought that TOO MUCH systematic
work [and] description somehow blunts the faculties. The general public
appreciates a good dose of reasoning, or generalisation, with new and
curious remarks on habits, final causes, etc. etc., far more than do the
regular naturalists.
I am extremely glad to hear that you have begun your travels...I am very
busy, but I shall be TRULY glad to render any aid which I can by reading
your first chapter or two. I do not think I shall be able to correct
style, for this reason, that after repeated trials I find I cannot correct
my own style till I see the MS. in type. Some are born with a power of
good writing, like Wallace; others like myself and Lyell have to labour
very hard and slowly at every sentence. I find it a very good plan, when I
cannot get a difficult discussion to please me, to fancy that some one
comes into the room and asks me what I am doing; and then try at once and
explain to the imaginary person what it is all about. I have done this for
one paragraph to myself several times, and sometimes to Mrs. Darwin, till I
see how the subject ought to go. It is, I think, good to read one's MS.
aloud. But style to me is a great difficulty; yet some good judges think I
have succeeded, and I say this to encourage you.
What I THINK I can do will be to tell you whether parts had better be
shortened. It is good, I think, to dash "in media res," and work in later
any descriptions of country or any historical details which may be
necessary. Murray likes lots of wood-cuts--give some by all means of ants.
The public appreciate monkeys--our poor cousins. What sexual differences
are there in monkeys? Have you kept them tame? if so, about their
expression. I fear that you will hardly read my vile hand-writing, but I
cannot without killing trouble write better.
You shall have my candid opinion on your MS., but remember it is hard to
judge from MS., one reads slowly, and heavy parts seem much heavier. A
first-rate judge thought my Journal very poor; now that it is in print, I
happen to know, he likes it. I am sure you will understand why I am so
egotistical.
I was a LITTLE disappointed in Wallace's book ('Travels on the Amazon and
Rio Negro,' 1853.) on the Amazon; hardly facts enough. On the other hand,
in Gosse's book (Probably the 'Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica,' 1851.)
there is not reasoning enough to my taste. Heaven knows whether you will
care to read all this scribbling...
I am glad you had a pleasant day with Hooker (In a letter to Sir J.D.
Hooker (December 1861), my father wrote: "I am very glad to hear that you
like Bates. I have seldom in my life been more struck with a man's power
of mind."), he is an admirably good man in every sense.
[The following extract from a letter to Mr. Bates on the same subject is
interesting as giving an idea of the plan followed by my father in writing
his 'Naturalist's Voyage:'
"As an old hackneyed author, let me give you a bit of advice, viz. to
strike out every word which is not quite necessary to the current subject,
and which could not interest a stranger. I constantly asked myself, would
a stranger care for this? and struck out or left in accordingly. I think
too much pains cannot be taken in making the style transparently clear and
throwing eloquence to the dogs."
Mr. Bates's book, 'The Naturalist on the Amazons,' was published in 1865,
but the following letter may be given here rather than in its due
chronological position:]
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.W. BATES.
Down, April 18, 1863.
Dear Bates,
I have finished volume i. My criticisms may be condensed into a single
sentence, namely, that it is the best work of Natural History Travels ever
published in England. Your style seems to me admirable. Nothing can be
better than the discussion on the struggle for existence, and nothing
better than the description of the Forest scenery. (In a letter to Lyell
my father wrote: "He [i.e. Mr. Bates] is second only to Humboldt in
describing a tropical forest.") It is a grand book, and whether or not it
sells quickly, it will last. You have spoken out boldly on Species; and
boldness on the subject seems to get rarer and rarer. How beautifully
illustrated it is. The cut on the back is most tasteful. I heartily
congratulate you on its publication.
The "Athenaeum" ("I have read the first volume of Bates's Book; it is
capital, and I think the best Natural History Travels ever published in
England. He is bold about Species, etc., and the "Athenaeum" coolly says
'he bends his facts' for this purpose."--(From a letter to Sir J.D.
Hooker.)) was rather cold, as it always is, and insolent in the highest
degree about your leading facts. Have you seen the "Reader"? I can send
it to you if you have not seen it...
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, December 11 [1861].
My dear Gray,
Many and cordial thanks for your two last most valuable notes. What a
thing it is that when you receive this we may be at war, and we two be
bound, as good patriots, to hate each other, though I shall find this
hating you very hard work. How curious it is to see two countries, just
like two angry and silly men, taking so opposite a view of the same
transaction! I fear there is no shadow of doubt we shall fight if the two
Southern rogues are not given up. (The Confederate Commissioners Slidell
and Mason were forcibly removed from the "Trent", a West India mail steamer
on November 8, 1861. The news that the U.S. agreed to release them reached
England on January 8, 1862.) And what a wretched thing it will be if we
fight on the side of slavery. No doubt it will be said that we fight to
get cotton; but I fully believe that this has not entered into the motive
in the least. Well, thank Heaven, we private individuals have nothing to
do with so awful a responsibility. Again, how curious it is that you seem
to think that you can conquer the South; and I never meet a soul, even
those who would most wish it, who thinks it possible--that is, to conquer
and retain it. I do not suppose the mass of people in your country will
believe it, but I feel sure if we do go to war it will be with the utmost
reluctance by all classes, Ministers of Government and all. Time will
show, and it is no use writing or thinking about it. I called the other
day on Dr. Boott, and was pleased to find him pretty well and cheerful. I
see, by the way, he takes quite an English opinion of American affairs,
though an American in heart. (Dr. Boott was born in the U.S.) Buckle
might write a chapter on opinion being entirely dependent on longitude!
...With respect to Design, I feel more inclined to show a white flag than
to fire my usual long-range shot. I like to try and ask you a puzzling
question, but when you return the compliment I have great doubts whether it
is a fair way of arguing. If anything is designed, certainly man must be:
one's "inner consciousness" (though a false guide) tells one so; yet I
cannot admit that man's rudimentary mammae...were designed. If I was to
say I believed this, I should believe it in the same incredible manner as
the orthodox believe the Trinity in Unity. You say that you are in a haze;
I am in thick mud; the orthodox would say in fetid, abominable mud; yet I
cannot keep out of the question. My dear Gray, I have written a deal of
nonsense.
Yours most cordially,
C. DARWIN.
1862.
[Owing to the illness from scarlet fever of one of his boys, he took a
house at Bournemouth in the autumn. He wrote to Dr. Gray from Southampton
(August 21, 1862):--
"We are a wretched family, and ought to be exterminated. We slept here to
rest our poor boy on his journey to Bournemouth, and my poor dear wife
sickened with scarlet fever, and has had it pretty sharply, but is
recovering well. There is no end of trouble in this weary world. I shall
not feel safe till we are all at home together, and when that will be I
know not. But it is foolish complaining."
Dr. Gray used to send postage stamps to the scarlet fever patient; with
regard to this good-natured deed my father wrote--
"I must just recur to stamps; my little man has calculated that he will now
have 6 stamps which no other boy in the school has. Here is a triumph.
Your last letter was plaistered with many coloured stamps, and he long
surveyed the envelope in bed with much quiet satisfaction."
The greater number of the letters of 1862 deal with the Orchid work, but
the wave of conversion to Evolution was still spreading, and reviews and
letters bearing on the subject still came in numbers. As an example of the
odd letters he received may be mentioned one which arrived in January of
this year "from a German homoeopathic doctor, an ardent admirer of the
'Origin.' Had himself published nearly the same sort of book, but goes
much deeper. Explains the origin of plants and animals on the principles
of homoeopathy or by the law of spirality. Book fell dead in Germany.
Therefore would I translate it and publish it in England."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO T.H. HUXLEY.
Down, [January?] 14 [1862].
My dear Huxley,
I am heartily glad of your success in the North (This refers to two of Mr.
Huxley's lectures, given before the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh
in 1862. The substance of them is given in 'Man's Place in Nature.'), and
thank you for your note and slip. By Jove you have attacked Bigotry in its
stronghold. I thought you would have been mobbed. I am so glad that you
will publish your Lectures. You seem to have kept a due medium between
extreme boldness and caution. I am heartily glad that all went off so
well. I hope Mrs. Huxley is pretty well...I must say one word on the
Hybrid question. No doubt you are right that here is a great hiatus in the
argument; yet I think you overrate it--you never allude to the excellent
evidence of VARIETIES of Verbascum and Nicotiana being partially sterile
together. It is curious to me to read (as I have to-day) the greatest
crossing GARDENER utterly pooh-poohing the distinction which BOTANISTS make
on this head, and insisting how frequently crossed VARIETIES produce
sterile offspring. Do oblige me by reading the latter half of my Primula
paper in the 'Linn. Journal,' for it leads me to suspect that sterility
will hereafter have to be largely viewed as an acquired or SELECTED
character--a view which I wish I had had facts to maintain in the 'Origin.'
(The view here given will be discussed in the chapter on hetero-styled
plants.)
CHARLES DARWIN TO J.D. HOOKER.
Down, January 25 [1862].
My dear Hooker,
Many thanks for your last Sunday's letter, which was one of the pleasantest
I ever received in my life. We are all pretty well redivivus, and I am at
work again. I thought it best to make a clean breast to Asa Gray; and told
him that the Boston dinner, etc. etc., had quite turned my stomach, and
that I almost thought it would be good for the peace of the world if the
United States were split up; on the other hand, I said that I groaned to
think of the slave-holders being triumphant, and that the difficulties of
making a line of separation were fearful. I wonder what he will say...Your
notion of the Aristocrat being kenspeckle, and the best men of a good lot
being thus easily selected is new to me, and striking. The 'Origin' having
made you in fact a jolly old Tory, made us all laugh heartily. I have
sometimes speculated on this subject; primogeniture (My father had a strong
feeling as to the injustice of primogeniture, and in a similar spirit was
often indignant over the unfair wills that appear from time to time. He
would declare energetically that if he were law-giver no will should be
valid that was not published in the testator's lifetime; and this he
maintained would prevent much of the monstrous injustice and meanness
apparent in so many wills.) is dreadfully opposed to selection; suppose the
first-born bull was necessarily made by each farmer the begetter of his
stock! On the other hand, as you say, ablest men are continually raised to
the peerage, and get crossed with the older Lord-breeds, and the Lords
continually select the most beautiful and charming women out of the lower
ranks; so that a good deal of indirect selection improves the Lords.
Certainly I agree with you the present American row has a very Torifying
influence on us all. I am very glad to hear you are beginning to print the
'Genera;' it is a wonderful satisfaction to be thus brought to bed, indeed
it is one's chief satisfaction, I think, though one knows that another
bantling will soon be developing...
CHARLES DARWIN TO MAXWELL MASTERS. (Dr. Masters is a well-known vegetable
teratologist, and has been for many years the editor of the "Gardeners'
Chronicle".)
Down, February 26 [1862].
My dear Sir,
I am much obliged to you for sending me your article (Refers to a paper on
"Vegetable Morphology," by Dr. Masters, in the 'British and Foreign Medico-
Chirurgical Review' for 1862), which I have just read with much interest.
The history, and a good deal besides, was quite new to me. It seems to me
capitally done, and so clearly written. You really ought to write your
larger work. You speak too generously of my book; but I must confess that
you have pleased me not a little; for no one, as far as I know, has ever
remarked on what I say on classification--a part, which when I wrote it,
pleased me. With many thanks to you for sending me your article, pray
believe me,
My dear Sir, yours sincerely,
C. DARWIN.
[In the spring of this year (1862) my father read the second volume of
Buckle's 'History of Civilisation." The following strongly expressed
opinion about it may be worth quoting:--
"Have you read Buckle's second volume? It has interested me greatly; I do
not care whether his views are right or wrong, but I should think they
contained much truth. There is a noble love of advancement and truth
throughout; and to my taste he is the very best writer of the English
language that ever lived, let the other be who he may."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, March 15 [1862].
My dear Gray,
Thanks for the newspapers (though they did contain digs at England), and
for your note of February 18th. It is really almost a pleasure to receive
stabs from so smooth, polished, and sharp a dagger as your pen. I heartily
wish I could sympathise more fully with you, instead of merely hating the
South. We cannot enter into your feelings; if Scotland were to rebel, I
presume we should be very wrath, but I do not think we should care a penny
what other nations thought. The millennium must come before nations love
each other; but try and do not hate me. Think of me, if you will as a poor
blinded fool. I fear the dreadful state of affairs must dull your interest
in Science...
I believe that your pamphlet has done my book GREAT good; and I thank you
from my heart for myself; and believing that the views are in large part
true, I must think that you have done natural science a good turn. Natural
Selection seems to be making a little progress in England and on the
Continent; a new German edition is called for, and a French (In June, 1862,
my father wrote to Dr. Gray: "I received, 2 or 3 days ago, a French
translation of the 'Origin,' by a Madlle. Royer, who must be one of the
cleverest and oddest women in Europe: is an ardent Deist, and hates
Christianity, and declares that natural selection and the struggle for life
will explain all morality, nature of man, politics, etc. etc.! She makes
some very curious and good hits, and says she shall publish a book on these
subjects." Madlle. Royer added foot-notes to her translation, and in many
places where the author expresses great doubt, she explains the difficulty,
or points out that no real difficulty exists.) one has just appeared. One
of the best men, though at present unknown, who has taken up these views,
is Mr. Bates; pray read his 'Travels in Amazonia,' when they appear; they
will be very good, judging from MS. of the first two chapters.
...Again I say, do not hate me.
Ever yours most truly,
C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL.
1 Carlton Terrace, Southampton (The house of his son William.),
August 22, [1862].
...I heartily hope that you (I.e. 'The Antiquity of Man.') will be out in
October...you say that the Bishop and Owen will be down on you; the latter
hardly can, for I was assured that Owen in his Lectures this spring
advanced as a new idea that wingless birds had lost their wings by disuse,
also that magpies stole spoons, etc., from a REMNANT of some instinct like
that of the Bower-Bird, which ornaments its playing-passage with pretty
feathers. Indeed, I am told that he hinted plainly that all birds are
descended from one...
Your P.S. touches on, as it seems to me, very difficult points. I am glad
to see [that] in the 'Origin,' I only say that the naturalists generally
consider that low organisms vary more than high; and this I think certainly
is the general opinion. I put the statement this way to show that I
considered it only an opinion probably true. I must own that I do not at
all trust even Hooker's contrary opinion, as I feel pretty sure that he has
not tabulated any result. I have some materials at home, I think I
attempted to make this point out, but cannot remember the result.
Mere variability, though the necessary foundation of all modifications, I
believe to be almost always present, enough to allow of any amount of
selected change; so that it does not seem to me at all incompatible that a
group which at any one period (or during all successive periods) varies
less, should in the long course of time have undergone more modification
than a group which is generally more variable.
Placental animals, e.g. might be at each period less variable than
Marsupials, and nevertheless have undergone more DIFFERENTIATION and
development than marsupials, owing to some advantage, probably brain
development.
I am surprised, but do not pretend to form an opinion at Hooker's statement
that higher species, genera, etc., are best limited. It seems to me a bold
statement.
Looking to the 'Origin,' I see that I state that the productions of the
land seem to change quicker than those of the sea (Chapter X., page 339, 3d
edition), and I add there is some reason to believe that organisms
considered high in the scale change quicker than those that are low. I
remember writing these sentences after much deliberation...I remember well
feeling much hesitation about putting in even the guarded sentences which I
did. My doubts, I remember, related to the rate of change of the Radiata
in the Secondary formation, and of the Foraminifera in the oldest Tertiary
beds...
Good night,
C. DARWIN.
CHARLES DARWIN TO C. LYELL.
Down, October 1 [1862].
...I found here (On his return from Bournemouth.) a short and very kind
note of Falconer, with some pages of his 'Elephant Memoir,' which will be
published, in which he treats admirably on long persistence of type. I
thought he was going to make a good and crushing attack on me, but to my
great satisfaction, he ends by pointing out a loophole, and adds (Falconer,
"On the American Fossil Elephant," in the 'Nat. Hist. Review,' 1863, page
81. The words preceding those cited by my father make the meaning of his
quotation clearer. The passage begins as follows: "The inferences which I
draw from these facts are not opposed to one of the leading propositions of
Darwin's theory. With him," etc. etc.) "with him I have no faith that the
mammoth and other extinct elephants made their appearance suddenly...The
most rational view seems to be that they are the modified descendants of
earlier progenitors, etc." This is capital. There will not be soon one
good palaeontologist who believes in immutability. Falconer does not allow
for the Proboscidean group being a failing one, and therefore not likely to
be giving off new races.
He adds that he does not think Natural Selection suffices. I do not quite
see the force of his argument, and he apparently overlooks that I say over
and over again that Natural Selection can do nothing without variability,
and that variability is subject to the most complex fixed laws...
[In his letters to Sir J.D. Hooker, about the end of this year, are
occasional notes on the progress of the 'Variation of Animals and Plants.'
Thus on November 24th he wrote: "I hardly know why I am a little sorry,
but my present work is leading me to believe rather more in the direct
action of physical conditions. I presume I regret it, because it lessens
the glory of natural selection, and is so confoundedly doubtful. Perhaps I
shall change again when I get all my facts under one point of view, and a
pretty hard job this will be."
Again, on December 22nd, "To-day I have begun to think of arranging my
concluding chapters on Inheritance, Reversion, Selection, and such things,
and am fairly paralyzed how to begin and how to end, and what to do, with
my huge piles of materials."]
CHARLES DARWIN TO ASA GRAY.
Down, November 6 [1862].
My dear Gray,
When your note of October 4th and 13th (chiefly about Max Muller) arrived,
I was nearly at the end of the same book ('Lectures on the Science of
Language,' 1st edition 1861.), and had intended recommending you to read
it. I quite agree that it is extremely interesting, but the latter part
about the FIRST origin of language much the least satisfactory. It is a
marvellous problem...[There are] covert sneers at me, which he seems to get
the better of towards the close of the book. I cannot quite see how it
will forward "my cause," as you call it; but I can see how any one with
literary talent (I do not feel up to it) could make great use of the
subject in illustration. (Language was treated in the manner here
indicated by Sir C. Lyell in the 'Antiquity of Man.' Also by Prof.
Schleicher, whose pamphlet was fully noticed in the "Reader", February 27,
1864 (as I learn from one of Prof. Huxley's 'Lay Sermons').) What pretty
metaphors you would make from it! I wish some one would keep a lot of the
most noisy monkeys, half free, and study their means of communication!
A book has just appeared here which will, I suppose, make a noise, by
Bishop Colenso ('The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined,'
six parts, 1862-71.), who, judging from extracts, smashes most of the Old
testament. Talking of books, I am in the middle of one which pleases me,
though it is very innocent food, viz., Miss Coopers 'Journal of a
Naturalist.' Who is she? She seems a very clever woman, and gives a
capital account of the battle between OUR and YOUR weeds. Does it not hurt
your Yankee pride that we thrash you so confoundedly? I am sure Mrs. Gray
will stick up for your own weeds. Ask her whether they are not more
honest, downright good sort of weeds. The book gives an extremely pretty
picture of one of your villages; but I see your autumn, though so much more
gorgeous than ours, comes on sooner, and that is one comfort...
CHARLES DARWIN TO H.W. BATES.
Down, November 20 [1862].
Dear Bates,
I have just finished, after several reads, your paper. (This refers to Mr.
Bates's paper, "Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazons Valley"
('Linn. Soc. Trans.' xxiii., 1862), in which the now familiar subject of
mimicry was founded. My father wrote a short review of it in the 'Natural
History Review,' 1863, page 219, parts of which occur in this review almost
verbatim in the later editions of the 'Origin of Species.' A striking
passage occurs showing the difficulties of the case from a creationist's
point of view:--
"By what means, it may be asked, have so many butterflies of the Amazonian
region acquired their deceptive dress? Most naturalists will answer that
they were thus clothed from the hour of their creation--an answer which
will generally be so far triumphant that it can be met only by long-drawn
arguments; but it is made at the expense of putting an effectual bar to all
further enquiry. In this particular case, moreover, the creationist will
meet with special difficulties; for many of the mimicking forms of Leptalis
can be shown by a graduated series to be merely varieties of one species;
other mimickers are undoubtedly distinct species, or even distinct genera.
So again, some of the mimicked forms can be shown to be merely varieties;
but the greater number must be ranked as distinct species. Hence the
creationist will have to admit that some of these forms have become
imitators, by means of the laws of variation, whilst others he must look at
as separately created under their present guise; he will further have to
admit that some have been created in imitation of forms not themselves
created as we now see them, but due to the laws of variation? Prof.
Agassiz, indeed, would think nothing of this difficulty; for he believes
that not only each species and each variety, but that groups of
individuals, though identically the same, when inhabiting distinct
countries, have been all separately created in due proportional numbers to
the wants of each land. Not many naturalists will be content thus to
believe that varieties and individuals have been turned out all ready made,
almost as a manufacturer turns out toys according to the temporary demand
of the market.") In my opinion it is one of the most remarkable and
admirable papers I ever read in my life. The mimetic cases are truly
marvellous, and you connect excellently a host of analogous facts. The
illustrations are beautiful, and seem very well chosen; but it would have
saved the reader not a little trouble, if the name of each had been
engraved below each separate figure. No doubt this would have put the
engraver into fits, as it would have destroyed the beauty of the plate. I
am not at all surprised at such a paper having consumed much time. I am
rejoiced that I passed over the whole subject in the 'Origin,' for I should
have made a precious mess of it. You have most clearly stated and solved a
wonderful problem. No doubt with most people this will be the cream of the
paper; but I am not sure that all your facts and reasonings on variation,
and on the segregation of complete and semi-complete species, is not really
more, or at least as valuable, a part. I never conceived the process
nearly so clearly before; one feels present at the creation of new forms.
I wish, however, you had enlarged a little more on the pairing of similar
varieties; a rather more numerous body of facts seems here wanted. Then,
again, what a host of curious miscellaneous observations there are--as on
related sexual and individual variability: these will some day, if I live,
be a treasure to me.
With respect to mimetic resemblance being so common with insects, do you
not think it may be connected with their small size; they cannot defend
themselves; they cannot escape by flight, at least, from birds, therefore
they escape by trickery and deception?
I have one serious criticism to make, and that is about the title of the
paper; I cannot but think that you ought to have called prominent attention
in it to the mimetic resemblances. Your paper is too good to be largely
appreciated by the mob of naturalists without souls; but, rely on it, that
it will have LASTING value, and I cordially congratulate you on your first
great work. You will find, I should think, that Wallace will fully
appreciate it. How gets on your book? Keep your spirits up. A book is no
light labour. I have been better lately, and working hard, but my health
is very indifferent. How is your health? Believe me, dear Bates,
Yours very sincerely,
C. DARWIN.
